Popular White Mountain National forest trail closing for repairs

One of the most heavily used entrance trails on the Southwest corner of the White Mountain National Forest is closing for weekdays on Thursday for extensive repairs.

Colleen Mainville, spokesman for the forest, said the 2.9-mile Lincoln Woods Trail will close due to the damage caused by Tropical Storm Irene in 2011.

The trail is a main route into the headwaters of the East Branch of the Pemigewasset River and leads into one of the largest roadless areas in the eastern United States known as the Pemigewasset Wilderness.

The 170-car parking lot and visitors center is well-used.

Mainville said she is hopeful the trail and visitor center will be open most weekends during the extensive trail work.

It begins on Thursday with the contractor taking over the site, just 5 miles east of Lincoln.

Backpackers, day hikers, fishermen, and mountain bikers all share this very popular multiple-use trail which begins with a span bridge across the East Branch of the Pemigewasset River.

Most clearings adjacent to the trail are old logging camps. Other remnants of a hard cut past including dugway roads (roads dug into a mountain), ice ponds, bridge abutments at stream crossings, old dumps, abandoned rails, railroad ties and ironware.

Mainville said the rushing water during the tropical storm did extensive damage to the trail and its environs.

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